NYPD to Get 50 Chevy Volt Police Cars

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today unveiled the first of what will be a fleet of 50 Chevrolet Volt NYPD police cruisers, which will hit the treacherous and busy streets of Manhattan this year.

“This is the latest and largest-ever addition of electric vehicles to the City’s fleet, which is already the largest municipal clean-air vehicle fleet in the nation,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “We will continue to lead by example, but we also must provide New Yorkers with tools to make environmentally friendly choices in their own lives.

“When provided with the facts, people become far more likely to choose an electric vehicle. Our job is to ensure the public has the facts, ensure they can make their own decisions and ensure that if they want to drive an electric vehicle, we are providing the infrastructure needed. It’s all part of our PlaNYC agenda to create a greener, greater New York City.”

The Volt is the first fully-electric car to join the NYPD’s ranks. In addition, the New York City Police Department will add 10 Ford Transit Connect electric vehicles and 10 Navi-Star trucks to its fleet.

EVs are 1/10th the Cost to 'Fuel' Compared With ICE Vehicles

Under current utility electric vehicle (EV) tariffs, it is always cheaper to recharge an EV than to fuel a conventional gas-powered vehicle, according to a new study released today by Northeast Group, LLC. The study benchmarked and analyzed the first wave of EV-specific tariffs launched by electric utilities across the United States.

"In all scenarios we studied, the costs to recharge an electric vehicle were cheaper than fueling a gasoline-powered car. In the most likely EV charging scenarios, costs were approximately one-tenth to half the costs of fueling a conventional vehicle with gasoline," according to Northeast Group, LLC. The cost analysis looked specifically at "fueling" expenses, and did not consider other operating costs of vehicles.

"Electric utilities in the US are encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles by rolling out EV-specific tariffs to their customers. These tariffs take different forms, ranging from time-of-use (TOU) tariffs to flat rate tariffs. With the TOU tariffs, customers receive cheaper rates when they charge during off-peak times (typically nights and weekends). With the flat rate tariffs – e.g. $40 per month – all charging is typically covered. Utilities are now studying which tariffs will best accommodate the increasing number of electric vehicles on US roads," according to Northeast Group, LLC.

The study, "United States Smart Grid: Utility Electric Vehicle Tariffs," includes a benchmark of the EV tariffs of ten different utilities in six different US states (California, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Texas). It provides a description of the different EV tariff structures offered across the country, a list of utilities and their specific EV tariffs, and a comparison and analysis of these tariffs. For example, the study includes an analysis of how different tariffs' costs vary for EV owners depending on distance driven and the time of day an EV is recharged.

Shai Agassi "This is the Internet with another Zero." [video]

ABC TV in Australia has produced a few great videos promoting the ideas about Peak Oil and Electric Cars this year.

Shai Agassi: "It is the biggest financial opportunity the world has ever seen...This is the Internet with another Zero."

As debate rages in Australia over how best to reduce carbon emissions & our dependency on oil, the question still remains as to what to do about our addiction to gas guzzling cars. An Israeli man thinks he has the solution; an ambitious global plan to drive the electric car further than it's ever gone before.

ABC TV Catalyst Peak Oil Report [video]

ABC Catalyst travels from Paris, to London, to the outer space like world that is deep sea drilling, to find out where we stand with our oil supply.

Kirk Sorensen explains Energy from Thorium @ TEDxYYC [video]

Kirk Sorensen is chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama and is an advocate for nuclear energy based on thorium and liquid-fluoride fuels.

For five years he has authored the blog "Energy from Thorium" and helped grow an online community of thousands who support a renewed effort to develop thorium as an energy source. He is a 1999 graduate of Georgia Tech in aerospace engineering and is also a graduate student in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee.

He has spoken publicly on thorium at the Manchester International Forum in 2009, at NASA's Green Energy Forum in 2008, and in several TechTalks at Google. He has been featured in Wired magazine, Machine Design magazine, the Economist, the UK Guardian and Telegraph newspapers, and on Russia Today.

He also taught nuclear engineering at Tennessee Technological University as a guest lecturer. He is active in nonprofit advocacy organizations such as the Thorium Energy Alliance and the International Thorium Energy Organization. He is married and has four small children.